The Stages of Staging

In a conversation I had with Joe Blair, the creative director at Fellowship Bible, Nashville, he mentioned the importance of doing a Photoshop mockup of every stage design prior to construction. Genius. This makes sense on so many levels: I've designed and built so many things that looked great in my mind, but once they materialized looked like garbage. My dad is an artist and graphic designer himself told me growing up that if you can draw it, you have an actual understanding of what you're doing and the final outcome will be so much better. Makes sense, doesn't it? Besides saving lots of time and money this is also good for my Photoshop learning skills. As you can tell I have a lot to learn. Hey, these are rough sketches that were thrown together, be nice!

Here are a few examples of wins and fails:

This is a pic of the actual stage - don't actually have a mockup of this one...eating my own words...



I used this mockup of Kyle's youth room to convince him that purple was a good choice. It worked.



I never actually ended up building either of these.





This is a work in progress but I need to hurry up, we're starting construction this week!



I think this is the winning candidate: Sneak peak for all for Grace people!!



Moral of the story: Make sure your next Creative Arts Pastor is a good artist.

Jesus is Power Over Death, Video series #4

Last week I interviewed several people from church who've experienced the loss of a loved one. These were tough interviews to do and even though they spoke of hope and the assurance of their salvation and an eternity with our Creator there were still lots of tears and emotions to wade through. It was tough enough capturing the footage and experiencing it once and over the next few days as I edited this I lived through these stories probably a hundred times! One might become calloused by such repetition. Not me. Cried every time. Not sure if this is good or not.

I had originally hoped to write a song about the heart-ache in death and the joy of eternal life, but ended up recording the solo piano and guitar pieces instead as a subtle background to let the stories speak for themselves.

More than anything I found myself incredibly encouraged by the stories and courage of these sweet families. Even in the midst of extreme tragedy, sadness and loss, God remained close to Jessica, Corey and Dan. We have hope that when this happens to us as believers we have the same hope and promise.

Jesus is Power Video Series #2

This Sunday Jay spoke on spiritual warfare and the passage in Mark when Jesus cast the demons into the pigs. Tim Whatley is a missionary with New Tribes Canada and he recorded himself and sent me a few stories. This guy is awesome and his stories are inspiring. Check it out!

Jesus's Power Video Series #1

As we're plowing through Mark, Jay is entering a five week mini-series on Jesus's Power and this week he's talking about how we can see it through nature.



Since we'll be having baby-dedication this Sunday I did this piece showing God's power through the gift of children and the impact they have on us as parents. It was honestly thrilling simply putting the camera on these awesome couples and capturing their hearts on film. I honestly didn't even have to ask them any leading questions, they just spoke and U edited it down to this. I wish I would have had longer to capture more of their hearts!



I love the different hats I get to wear in my job, and video editor/director/producer is a fun one, I just wish I had more classes on film/media development in college! That goes to show that when you're in college take the most of every opportunity and dive in, because you don't know where it will take you or when you will need to add a new tool to your tool belt!